Diving in Curacao, at Habitat Curacao-opinions?

[scubamgb]

I'll chime in - I returned on April 4th from a week's dive vacation in Curacao. I did not stay at Habitat so I cannot comment on them. I will comment on the conditions of the reefs.

I did both shore and boat diving - shore diving with the Dive Bus at thier house reef called Peribaai and boat diving with Ocean Encounters from the Breezes hotel.

The Peribaai reef is amazing!! To be able to step into the water from the beach and then dive on a reef wall full of life was a first. I'm used to boat diving so this was such a nice treat.

The boat dives to Beacon Point, Barracuda Point, Bullen Bay, Snake Bay, Mushroom Forest, Porte Mari, Smokey and Cornelius Bay were also amazing. If you can get out to Mushroom Forest and Porte Mari the reefs are very lush a teaming with life - the sites were about 1 1/2 hour boat ride (I think Westward) but well worth it.

I compare the reefs at Curacao to the reefs I saw last year while doing a liveaboard trip with Nekton - the Medio Reef Bahamas itinerary. I thought I had seen lush, unspoiled reefs with tons of fish - big and small, amazing coral formations, etc...until Curacao. To be out in the middle of nowhere in the Bahamas you get pristine reefs and Curacao could go ahead to head with them. I was very happy at how healthy things were.

This was my second trip where I was diving to shoot underwater pics and my favourite place was at Peribaai Reef - on my last day of diving! I got pics of an octopus, lots of tiny shrimps and arrowhead crabs on huge anenomes, a lizard fish, lots of eels...and I could go on.

I've posted some pics so I'll let them speak for themselves.

Safe Diving.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

Snake Bay is an awesome shore dive. We saw 6 different types of eels there.

Green moray eel, spotted moray eel, goldentail moray eel, viper moray eel, sharptail eel, and goldspotted eel

Really lives up to its name.

 

[miketsp]

Maybe they were just having a bad day in the kitchen when I was there.

You say you were there a year ago. My experience was from last month. Apparently there was a change of ownership some months back and a total reorganization of the restaurant and a change of the dive operator.

 

[RJP]

telling someone to go to Bonaire when they ask specific questions about Curacao is like telling someone to buy a BP/W when they ask questions about a specific BC...

So, are you saying that's "wrong" or "right"?



PS - Curacao is great!

 

[Nautica Tim]

Been to Bonaire twice and Curacao once. I also stayed at the Habitat in Curacao. Great house reef! You will not be disappointed. All week was boat diving I did not drive to any sites like I did in Bonaire. Fantastic diving all week and felt is was equally compared to Bonaire in regards to diving. If I had to pick which one I liked more I would have to flip a coin.

 

[Nautica Tim]

RJP awesome stats!!

Air Posts: 1,249 Split Fin Posts: 3,271 BP/W v BCD Posts: 1,382 Air-2 Posts: 2,138

 

[jd950]

You say you were there a year ago. My experience was from last month. Apparently there was a change of ownership some months back and a total reorganization of the restaurant and a change of the dive operator.

I thought I had heard something along those lines (I mean besides the dive op ownership changing, which I knew). Perhaps I'll visit when I am on the island again this summer.

 

[zzzScuba]

The last time my wife and I stayed at the Habitat Curacao, we had a great time.
House Reef was excellent.
Dive Boat dives were staffed with a competant crew.
I'd go back, without hesitation.

 

[H2O lover]

We stayed at the Marriott and dove with The Dive Bus, what a great operation Mark and Suzy run. The Marriott was very nice. I wrote a more detailed post "Spring Break in Curacao"
The reefs are in great shape.

 

[miketsp]

We stayed at the Marriott and dove with The Dive Bus, what a great operation Mark and Suzy run. The Marriott was very nice. I wrote a more detailed post "Spring Break in Curacao"
The reefs are in great shape.

fftopic: And the relevance to a question about Habitat is? :focus: